Op-Ed: NASA studying UFOs won’t prove alien life exists. They should do it anyway.
“In the end, I think it was good. I learned a new word.”– Dr. Michael Talbot
It was October, 2015. I was sitting in my office at the University of Michigan-Flint with my research assistant and we were preparing for a conference. I was excited that the topic of my planned presentation was “What are we going to talk about at the future of space exploration?”.
My research assistant asked me, “What are we going to talk about?”
I thought a second before answering, “What are we going to talk about?”
Finally, I said, “It’s going to be in the future of space exploration.”
My research assistant replied, “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we’re going to talk about what’s coming in the future of space exploration and I’m going to show you a picture of it.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
I showed her a picture of Dr. Michael Talbot standing on the Moon, holding a piece of paper and looking out on the face of the Earth.
My research assistant said, “That doesn’t really make a lot of sense.”
“Why not?” I asked. “It does to me.”
In my opinion, it was the best picture that had ever been taken. The Moon was dark. The Earth was very near, but it was still there.
My research assistant looked at me like I was nuts.
“The Moon’s so far away,” she said. “Doesn’t it just look like a smudge on the horizon?”
“Yes, that’s what it does to me,” I said.
“What did you do?”
“I took the picture of the Moon…in the future of space exploration…and I projected it back onto your desk.”
“But I just don’t get it,” she said. “You can’t project